He was initiated in Illinois Beta of Sigma
Alpha Epsilon on October 28, 1911.

Inscribed on a bronze plaque at the Sigma Alpha
Epsilon fraternity house at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
is the following: "His commanding officer, Brigadier General Logan
Feland, said of him, 'I am glad to state this Marine detachment, under
most difficult circumstances and although outnumbered ten to one, has upheld
the reputation of the Marine Corps. Captain Buchanan and his detachment
showed bravery of the highest order.'

Submitted by Doug Fink, Sigma Alpha Epsilon
fraternity member.
In the early-morning hours of May 16, 1927, a couple of
hundred marauding bandits and demobilized Liberal soldiers swept into La
Pez Centro, Nicaragua, a railroad town midway between Coronto and Managua.

The Marine detachments from the Scouting Fleet's
battleships USS Florida, and USS Arkansas, were camped outside, and the
townspeople came to them for help. Buchanan, the Marine skipper, ordered
his bugler to sound the call to arms, and with forty men he advanced into
the town.

"Buchnan did a very gallant thing," said Marine
Corps Commandant John E. Lejeune. "He went right into that town in the
dead of night and the town was full of these bandits. They were looting
the houses and the stores."

The ensueing fight lasted for two hours. Buchanan
and a Marine Private were killed. Fourteen dead bandits lay strewn in the
street. But the actual number of bandits was not known, according to Lejune.
"They do not like to leave their dead around. They have a superstition
about the vultures, which are everywhere in the country eating dead men,
and they always carry off their dead if they can possibly do it."

Born on December 16, 1892 and killed on May
16, 1927, this Marine Corps hero was returned to the United States for
burial in Section 4 of Arlington National Cemetery.

His wife, Marjorie Brown Buchanan, January
10, 1901-September 1, 1982, never remarried and lived for 55 years after
he was killed. She now lies with her hero in Arlington.

By 26 May, the Liberals had turned in 11,600
rifles, 303 machine guns, and 5,500,000 rounds of ammunition. Nevertheless,
there were plenty of indications of turbulence to come.

On 16 May, a band of outlaws, a fragment of
the rebel army, raided the village of La Paz. No sooner had the bandits
begun their looting than a detachment of Marines, led by Captain Richard
B. Buchanan, charged along the main street to meet them. In routing
the outlaws, Captain Buchanan and Private Marvin A. Jackson were killed.
Roving bandits and irrational political loyalty could combine to keep Nicaragua
in turmoil for years to come.
Monday, May. 30, 1927Marines Killed

Six thousand two hundred rifles, 272 machine
guns, and 5,000,000 rounds of ammunition were surrendered last week to
the U. S. forces in Nicaragua by the Liberal and Conservative armies, heretofore
engaged in a civil war (TIME, May 17, 1926, et seq.). Colonel Henry Lewis
Stimson, personal representative of President Coolidge, supervised this
operation, cabled: "The civil war in Nicaragua is now definitely ended."

Next morning, at 1 a. m., a band of about 300
Liberal soldiers, not yet disarmed, offered resistance in the hamlet of
La Paz Centro to a platoon of U. S. marines commanded by Captain Richard
Bell Buchanan. For two hours and a half the engagement continued. Captain
Buchanan fell, wounded in the chest and arms, and died some hours later.
Fourteen Nicaraguans were killed. The rest scattered, but not until Private
Marvin Andrew Jackson, U. S. M. C., had been instantly killed by a shot
through the brain.

"He was always such a good boy. And so interested
in military matters. As soon as he got out of school he tried to get into
the Marines. He was 6 ft., 2 in. tall and weighed 180 pounds, but the examiners
were hard to satisfy. They turned him down at first.

"Then I helped him. My husband and I sent him
to doctors and had his physical defects remedied. His tonsils were taken
out. There was even an operation to correct a very slight flat foot."